Open Future Fellowship 2023

1. How can the EU contribute to building digital public space in Europe and how can we get investment in digital public spaces on the European Commission’s agenda?
2. What are the values, principles, and rules that ought to govern the digital public space? What role does open-source software play? How does interoperability contribute to the creation of digital public space?
3. How should the open movement’s methods, narratives, and strategies be updated in view of the current challenges to the open internet?
4. What are the new and emerging fields of open? What distinguishes them from existing fields is how they understand and apply openness.

About Open Future

We are a small dedicated team of advocates, researchers, and community builders working to make the internet open. We strive to question the status quo and trigger tangible changes within the open movement and European digital policies.

Profile and Responsibilities

Fellows should have previous experience working on topics related to the above-listed questions. We encourage applications from people with various professional backgrounds, such as those in non-profit, policy, and research fields. We also encourage applicants from diverse regions and diverse academic disciplines to apply.

The fellowship will take the form of an individual project, centered around either of Open Futures’ two strategic goals: the future of open or digital public space.

The project will be co-designed by the OFF team and the fellow – to ensure that it connects well with other elements of our work. Together, we will decide on the details of the project, based on the initial proposal submitted by the fellow. We are open to research and analytical projects, as well as other types of proposals that critically engage with our issues, using other methods of inquiry.

In addition to conducting their projects, fellows will participate in regular calls with the rest of Open Future’s team. They will benefit from the exposure and engagement with the field, the network, and the (peer) mentoring of team members.

The fellowships will last 12 months. Fellows will be offered a monthly stipend of between 400-750 euros (we adjust salaries, fees and stipends based on the location of the individual), assuming about 30 hours of fellowship-related engagement per month.

Application process 

If you are interested in becoming our fellow, please send the following information to fellowship@openfuture.eu (subject of the email: Fellowship) by 31 December 2022:

• First and last name
• Location
• Resume (CV)
• A short proposal with your project idea and motivation for joining us as a fellow (max. 600 words)

The selection of fellows will be made in January. The fellowship may start in February.

We are committed to ensuring equality and promoting diversity. All qualified applicants will receive equal consideration without regard to race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age, or any other legally protected characteristic.

Applicant Privacy Policy

This Privacy Statement applies to the personal data that Stichting Open Future processes during the recruitment of fellows.

We will keep your personal data only for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected. In the case of a successful application, the collected information will be included in your personnel file. The data of candidates that are not successful will be deleted from our records by 31 January 2023.

We will not share any personal data with third parties ​​unless we have a legal obligation to do so.

Applicants have the right to obtain from us: information about how we process their personal data, as well as a copy of the personal data which we have stored. Applicants also have the right to correct, update, or delete their personal data from our records, as well as to data portability, and to report any misuse of their personal data.